Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for March, 2009

No Soup for you GM!

The new U.S. president is now playing hard ball with GM, and telling them to shape up or he will let them go under. This is an interesting tactic (that maybe should have been used with the Financial folks, but that is many trillions of dollars under the bridge already), which could spell 3 million more people on the unemployment line if threats of letting GM go down, transpire.

Will this happen? Nope, but it is an interesting sabre rattling tactic by the new regime in Washington. I could be wrong, but in a better optics move the GM Chairman stepped down, which shows change is coming in some fashion, but what kind of change? The bad optics is Mr. Wagoner is taking with him a compensation package of about $23 Million, where did THAT money come from?

Skype Your iPhone

That one surprises me, I thought Apple would keep the iPhone VoIP free for a while to appease their Big Phone company clients, but Skype announced yesterday a VoIP client for the iPhone. Right now it will only work on the Wi-Fi side of things, however this does mean the iPhone users will be able to save money by not using their precious talk minutes, or Big Phone Company data network minutes either, they will use their Skype client instead.

I suspect this is yet another step towards a ubiquitous network, and it should be interesting to see what new technology brings it all together (remember VoIP is about 10 years old already).

Stock Market Roller Coaster Continues

Back down the hill we go, with stock prices continuing to be quite volatile, it should be interesting to see where the prices go again this week, with talk of bail outs being cut and such. Stay tuned the very bumpy ride looks to be continuing for a good while longer. 

Eating out and Drinking Out More

Marginally, up about 0.1% in January (according to Stats Canada), which is another interesting view. Why are we eating and drinking out more, even though we are in a financial crisis? To boost our spirits (pardon the pun)? We deserve a night out? Interesting statistic, but that means the food and beverage business will continue to be hiring folks and keeping them employed, which is a good thing. A new pub is opened near our house, and it does seem very busy (the Senior Citizens bus there on St. Patty’s day at 1:00 PM was a nice touch), maybe it’s time to do some investigative reporting.

I got a comment last week in response to my New Grad’s Advice saying that my advice was ok, but blatantly obvious. I don’t disagree that what I wrote was pretty much “common sense” however, stating that any advice is obvious is a naive view of the world. 

A few great examples of advice (financial and other) that seems obvious that just isn’t followed even by ’smart’ people:

• Don’t smoke it’s bad for your health and it is expensive. Seems obvious, yet the tobacco industry continues to make very good profits and people continue to die of lung cancer, yet the advice is patently obvious.
• Don’t carry balances month to month on your credit card, the interest rates are ridiculous. This seems to me a “no brainer” given how cheap you can get lines of credit for, if you need to carry debt, yet the credit card industry continues to thrive on this financial folly.
• Don’t spend money you do not have. Again, to an 8 year old this is painfully obvious, because they can’t but as soon as we are old enough to have a credit card, this obvious statement, no longer seems so obvious.
• If you want more money, spend less or earn more. I think I have stated this a few thousand times (I espouse the spend less side of things more), yet people continue to get into debt and money issues because they don’t follow this simple credo.
• Don’t pay ridiculously high bank charges on your accounts, find the cheapest bank to deal with. I have heard people say that is too hard so they simply stick with the bank they are with (I then ask if they wouldn’t mind giving me $20 a month for doing nothing, since they are effectively doing the same with their bank).
• You can always trust a man who tucks his shirt in his underpants. Surprisingly another piece of advice most folks just don’t see as obvious.
• The only people who win when you buy lottery tickets is the lottery commission. Seems obvious to me, yet money is still being made in Ontario (although I was surprised to see that the Super 7 Lottery is ending in September).

One person’s obvious is another person’s blind spot, I’ll continue to point out the obvious, if readers wish to comment that I am being far too obvious, I have no trouble with that, I’d hate to think I am becoming obtuse in my old age.

This weekend we wander over and have a look at Rick Mercer one of Canada’s funniest satirist.

The first clip is him visiting the Royal Mint here in Ottawa (which is a very financial clip), and the second is a classic for those of us who might be forgetting that it is soon to be tax time.

The second video is not from the RMR web site, so hopefully it works for all of you.

RMR Visits the Mint

Tax Time Again

This week seems to have been a week where I figured advice was a good theme, not sure where it all came from, but it was an interesting bit of writing to cover some of the “rules” and ideas that have shaped myself. Good advice should never be discounted in value, and bad advice cannot be blamed more for bad choices. This means you should be careful giving out advice, because sometimes you can’t tell whether you are giving good or bad advice.

Advice and Best of The Week

• Canadian Tax resource points out that Ontario’s brand spanking new Harmonized Sales Tax could mean higher costs for all Canadians, due to charges on Mutual Funds.
• Wise Bread points out that for First Time Home Buyers: Learn to Trust is an interesting piece of advice, but remember to hire trustworthy folks first too (as is pointed out).
• No Debt Plan has some good advice about Why Companies Want You to Receive Your Bills Electronically, which has some very good points in it.
• Money Smart Life talks advises about Emergency Funds In Case You Lose Your Job, which is topical and good advice.
• Ellen Roseman wants to hear about your Telecom Complaints, as she is in the same boat right now. 
• The Canadian Capitalist also writes about the Cost of Harmonization, looks like a new cash grab by Ontario.
• Michael James did some serious number crunching and may have a system where you might not lose as much when you buy lottery tickets with the teasing title Winning the Lottery.
• Gail Vaz Oxlade has some good advice about Mortgages in Blending and Extending. 

Watch for the videos this weekend, went back to Financial and enlisted a great Canadian satirist to help out. Unless I win the lottery, see you on Monday.

Mixed Tax Budget?

The McGuinty Liberals bring down yet another budget Thursday for the Province of Ontario with promises of large deficits to help with the Financial Apocalypse and such. 

There is also talk of harmonizing both the PST and GST (for Ontario), which makes sense for small businesses (easier to collect and such), but concerns have been brought forward about things that are exempt from the Provincial Sales Tax increasing in price with the new merged tax (hopefully that is simply an accounting issue, and not an issue with unscrupulous vendors attempting to gouge consumers).

Other areas have worries (subsidized child care and such) about losing funding, but again this is a wait and see type of budget.

Cuts, Cuts, Cuts

The CBC is cutting 800 jobs across Canada (will Ottawa lose yet another dinner time news cast?), the City of Ottawa laid off 44 managers Wednesday and various companies are announcing further cuts as well (IBM saying a very large number, but given they are looking to buy SUN Microsystems it might not be exactly what everyone thinks).

With EI benefit claims being much higher in January up 4.4% from December, according to Stats Canada. The graph showing this is quite dramatic.

EI Claimants by Month